Walletano - a simple and interesting way to start using Bitcoin Lightning Network
Introduction
I stumble upon this interesting application for some time, testing it in some occasions. I didn't talked too much about it because I was trying to understand the concept first and see how is going.
But today, I would like to present you this very simple LN app that offer you both ways to use your sats: custodial and self-custodial (or better say non-custodial). So please read this guide until the end BEFORE your start using it! There's a catch here and I saw some newbies making mistakes.
OK, you could come up saying:
"but Darth, why do you talk about custodial apps? Is not that against Bitcoin ethos?"
My answer is simple: don't be paranoic with "all self-custodial". I've said many times, sometimes a custodial account could be used very easily as a DECOY, especially if is not using a KYC verification.
Also a custodial LN account could be used in many different ways to manage your self-custodial nodes liquidity, as I explained in numerous guides.
Walletano is a web-based app (PWA) that provides an easy and convenient way to manage your Bitcoin and Lightning Network wallets. Whether you're a customer looking for a hassle-free wallet experience, an LND node runner seeking self-custodial options, or a webmaster / company owner looking to transform corporate email addresses into Lightning addresses, Walletano has got you covered!
For who is Walletano useful?
1. For companies
I see Walletano as focusing mainly on companies that want to offer a customized LN Address same as the corporate email. This is very interesting feature for companies that start paying their employees in BTC and can do it with Walletano very easily through a LN Address too.
"Walletano-Email-to-Lightning" is quite easy to implement by any company webmaster, following the instructions from their Github repository.
2. For regular users, newbies in general
Walletano is damn simple to start and easy to setup. One-Click Setup, no lengthy registration process or tedious forms. Simply download the app or access our web-based platform, and you're ready to go. If a new LN user cannot start with his own LN node and just want to start stacking few amounts of sats this could be an excellent option. As I described in this guide, how to stack sats as a newbie with many LN apps.
Bellow I will explain a step-by-step scenario how to use Walletano and please pay attention to it.
3. Node runners
As a LN node runner you can use it for two things:
- Offering accounts for family and friends. Yes you can link your LN node in Walletano app and create multiple separate accounts that can be used by your family, in a nice and simple PWA interface.
- Managing your LN node liquidity swaping funds between your node and a Walletano custodial account. You can also use Walletano for swaps between LN<-->onchain (mention: seems that it doesn't support to send to Taproot addresses yet).
Main Walletano Features
- ⚡️ Web-Based Wallet: Access your wallets anytime, anywhere through our user-friendly web app.
- ⚡️ Lightning-Fast Transactions: Enjoy instant, low-cost transactions using the Lightning Network.
- ⚡️ Custodial and Self-Custodial Options: Choose the level of control that suits you best.
- ⚡️ PWA: Our progressive web app ensures a seamless experience across devices.
- ⚡️ Multi-Wallet Management: Effortlessly manage multiple wallets with a unified and intuitive design.
- ⚡️ Privacy-Oriented: No usernames or email addresses required, ensuring your personal information remains confidential.
- ⚡️ Transform Corporate Email Addresses: Convert your corporate email addresses into Lightning addresses effortlessly.
- ⚡️ Lightning Address Support: Create personalized Lightning addresses (e.g., you@walletano.com) or integrate your own corporate Lightning addresses (e.g., you@yourdomain.com).
- ⚡️ LNURL Support: Seamlessly interact with LNURL-enabled services for enhanced functionality and versatility.
- ⚡️ Integrated swaps between LN and onchain
Use case scenario
Let's say you are new to Bitcoin Lightning Network and you just want to start accumulating few sats received from many stacking sources (SN, nostr, donations, podcasts etc). And you still do not have the knowledge and the instruments of running your own LN node.
Or you just want to accumulate sats in a temporary location until you have a certain amount to move it into a bigger UTXO for long term stacking and also want to use a custodial DECOY to not reveal your last hop directly to all world, publicly.
Here comes Walletano, a simple web and PWA app, that can be used anonymously anywhere you want.
PLEASE pay attention to these steps!
I've seen users that lost their access because they didn't follow the exact steps and also didn't saved correctly the account access.
Yes, is a bit confusing the onboarding process, but once you get it, it make sense, because is without input any login, user, password or any personal details.
- Go to https://www.walletano.com/. I suggest to do it from a desktop browser and have your mobile device ready to scan and link the account.
- Click on "Go to wallet" (yes there is the confusion for noobs) because in that exact moment Walletano is creating a new wallet, without any input from the user. And here is the mistake that many new users did: they close the webpage without linking their new wallet to their mobile device (PWA. And you lost the access if you do not save it.
- Now, go to top left drawer and select "Settings". Click on the option "Link wallet". You will get a QR code to scan with your mobile device. Optional you can copy the link and save it into a password manager. The link is in this format:
https://www.walletano.com/wallet/wallet.html?def=claimwallet&wltid=<number>&claimhash=<long string hash>
THIS is your backup code! So please save it into a safe place (password manager).
- Now in your mobile, you can use the browser option to "Install" it as widget app (PWA). In Firefox for example, click on the 3 dots on top right and select "Add to Home screen".
- In case you choose to start a new wallet from your mobile directly, you will get this screen, first time you start it.
- Save that string indicated in this screen, if you start the Walletano account setup from the mobile device. If you started the account from a desktop browser and scan it with your mobile, is automatically saved.
- If you reset your browser, you can always recover it from that link mentioned before.
And that's it. Now you can personalize your displayed UI, colors, names, create more wallets, customize your LN Address. Keep in mind that each account you create in that session could have a different LN Address.
In the same session you could manage custodial and self-custodial accounts and switch between them very easily.
Conclusion and Resources
As you can see, is not so complicated to start using LN, the only "complicated" part is to save your backup strings, but with little attention and patience, you can do it, even that you are not so techy.
I hope this quick guide will be helpful for many newbies and have a smooth journey using Bitcoin Lightning Network.
This is just one of the many LN apps out there, that people should start using them and not just one, but many. Spread you stash in many locations and learn how to use them all. Each app will have its use in a specific situation, even that now you do not realize that.
More resources about Walletano:
- We have here on SN one of the devs @Walletano
- Website: https://www.walletano.com/
- FAQ page: https://www.walletano.com/main/faq.html
- Github repos: https://github.com/Walletano
- Telegram support: https://t.me/WalletanoCH
- Twix: https://x.com/walletano
- Nostr: https://nostr.at/npub12eqwteq2c2w9trgt95d3w4cky0quprprp42xefy8snw8tdexq5gsp9c5ek
DISCLAIMER:
I am NOT paid or part of these projects. I write guides purely because I want to help newbies to get easily onboard. I test the wallets and solutions first to see if are worth it. By myself, not trying to promote anything. All my guides are free and open source, anybody can use them as they like.